DN Worlds

The DN North American Championship concluded with two more races in each division. Once again, Matt Struble won the series showing great speed in the varying winds of 12- 17 Mph. Ice was hard and fast. Light snow was falling in the morning, resulting in blowing snow. Aaron Stange Placed 7^th in Gold Fleet, and Dave Zoll won 2^nd in the Bronze Fleet.

My day started out pretty much like Wednesday. I got to my starting position (once again, near the end of the line) and another sailor showed up claiming I was in his spot. I knew he was wrong, but just to be nice I sprinted to the scorekeepers shack and saw that he was one number down from me and needed to be on the other side of the line. Now I barely had time to take off my snow pants and coat, and was caught a little off guard. I was having an ok start and then noticed the German to leeward of me was getting in his boat and barely sheeted in before his mast went down. Now as I sheeted in I suddenly realized what I forgot to do… raise my halyard a little. I now was unable to crank the sail in quite as much as I needed to. The mast was still bending pretty good. At one point I passed a guy upwind whose mast was bending like crazy. I didn’t really feel overpowered so I decided I would make some changes after that race. As I rounded the weather mark I found myself behind none other than Jan Gougeon. Well either I am doing something right or he is doing something wrong. My plan: to stay behind him and watch and learn. I hang with him pretty well, until we are almost to the leeward mark. He then pointed almost dead downwind beginning his wide path around the mark. I simply run out of steam and cannot keep up with him. Not sure how he did that, but I didn’t see him the rest of the race…

The next race I shortened the forestay by one pin and dropped the sail one notch. This powered me up and should make me point better. Sure enough this change is enough to get me up into the fleet a little bit. I thought I was doing pretty good until the final leeward rounding when a European Starboard-tack boat came out of nowhere – my blind spot to the left. All I can think of is he must have been riding a heck of a puff to overtake me from that angle. He took my transom, and yelled something to make me know what was up. Now I realize that I need to jibe… yup right back into another crossing situation with the same guy. He ends up next to me as we approach the leeward mark yelling at me something I cannot understand… perhaps better that way as I already felt like a donkey’s rear end and didn’t need an interpreter to explain that to me. My lesson: When sailing down-wind off the diamond on port-tack you really need to glance off your left shoulder once in a while to check for boats coming at unexpected angles. All a learning experience… glad we didn’t hit. Not sure where I finished, but this time I was in front of lots of boats and in sight of Homan, Teal, and Francis.

We head back in – approximately a 3 mile trek, passing over some big cracks – many you need to walk over, two that you need to find two helpers to lift your boat over some planks for you. I park my boat and go over to help – I estimate I helped lift some 6 boats over the cracks at each stop. Theoretically, if everybody helps two other boats then everybody gets across okay. Obviously, many are just skating off as soon as they get their help. OK fine. But some of us try to do the Corinthian thing…

Got back to the pits. Rich had already torn his boat down. Apparently his plank started coming of his purple hull so he bailed out and headed in. He had pretty much torn up two boats this week. He helps Aaron and I tear down and load up in record time. Aaron lets us know that he probably earned a trophy so after our rush to tear down we stand and wait in the cold for the Awards Presentation. I am glad to get my boat torn down before that European guy comes by and starts giving me another foreign-language lesson. Maybe I will re-paint my boat by next year… sort of a clean-slate thing.

After the awards we jump in the van and head north toward Escanaba and meet J.R. at Burger King for some grub. A fill-up here should be enough to get us out of the U.P. We wish J.R. well as he heads back home to Florida after nearly a month of sailing. He still hasn't acclimated to the cold.

Friday, February 23rd: Should be the last day of racing. Everybody is up early, checking out of the hotel, and many of us have to set up our boats. The sun is out there is a breeze... though it is forecasted to be light and variable. Jan Gougeon pipes up from the table behind me at breakfast "Well, one more day guys!"

I apologize, but there probably wont be a chance for me to update this blog until I get home. But wireless internet connections may give me an opportunity to hook up and give you some more stories sometime tonight...

We plan on doing 3 races (if time and weather allows) then tear down and head back across the U.P. Maybe be home by 1 or 2 AM.

Thursday, February 22nd: Layday. Race committee went out this morning and found the cracks seams and heaves have actually improved. But it is so windy the four wheeler wont even stay still.

Preliminary resutls from North American Championship after 4 races sailed:

Gold Fleet
1. Matt Struble US 183 8 pts
2. Jakob Schneider P 679 9 pts
3. Ron Sherry US 44 14 pts
4. Tomas Lindgren S 81 19 pts
5. Berndt Zeiger G 107 20 pts

Silver Fleet
1. Mike Derusha US 2545 10 pts
2. Guy Lovejoy US 4638 15 pts
3. Jim McDonagh US 5214 24 pts
4. Markham Chatterton US 4811 24 pts
5. Richard Wollam US 4882 27 pts

Bronze Fleet
1. David Zoll US 4911 13 pts
2. George Long US 2138 16 pts
3. Harry Defer US 99 17 pts
4. Julie Richards US 4868 27 pts
5. David Kickhafer US 4602 31 pts

We are in a holding pattern for today. Winds are 20-30 mph with higher gusts. The plan is to resume racing Friday 0930. Stay tuned.

The tour of the Enstrom Helicopter plant is moved up to 3:00 P.M. The Toledo Crowd goes to lunch at a nice local family restaraunt. We are still laying pretty low from a long day of sailing. While most of us would prefer to go to bed, we roll the vanload of tired sailors to the helicopter plant, only a few minutes away. Very interesting. Appears that EVERYTHING except the engine and electronics are fabricated in house. The CEO explained they like to have close control over quality control and timelines. Seems to work for them. Apparently they have doubled production in the last 4 years. It was interesting to hear comments and questions from Jan and Meade Gougeon, and Doug Harvey. These guys certainly know a lot about machining and fabrication.

Above: Rob Holman demonstrates the "Freehand Technique" of grinding runners without using a jig. Don Williams in the picture at left is trying to show his confidence.

Pictures: Above Left: a view of the pits. Right: A view of the launch area. (note the boats making their way out to the starting area) And Left: Rich, Glenn, Rob, and Kent pause for a phot by an Enstrom Helicopter.

Back at the hotel, we do a bit of lounging and checking runners. All of our runners need stoning to make sure they are good and sharp. Checking Don Williams new carbon-stiffener runners, we discover that he has 18" of hollow in them. J.R. has his grinder, but we dont have a jig to allow sharpening runners with stiffeners. That's when Rob Holman claims to know how to do it "Freehand" we were all pretty doubtful. J.R. even had to leave the room before the grinding started... (one cant bare to watch what is certain to be carnage) But the end result came out pretty good, and Don is convinced we will be in the top 5 in his fleet Friday with his fine-tuned runners.

Later we head down to the hotel bar/restaurant. Wings are 25 cents. We hang out - actually quite longer than I planned. Aaron and Rich seem to have plans on going out. They head to the bathroom, J.R. and I slip into the Elevator and disappear from the two trouble-makers.

Wednesday, February 21st: North American Championship Begins. I am in Bronze Fleet and must sail a qualifier to get back into silver. Using my new knowledge gained the night before from past champ John Dennis, I am getting the boat going faster than before. I score a 4th, easily putting me into the top 12 that advance to Silver Fleet. As soon as the scores post, I must line up for the next qualifier that could put me into Gold Fleet. Again, I am able to make my boat go faster than before, and am actually gaining boats throughout the race rather than losing boats. In the final downwind leg I find myself battling it out with Rich Potcova coming in on Starboard at the mark and another guy coming in hot from the Right. Rich gets me by a boat length and I nose out the guy on the right. Rich and I both know we are close to qualifying Gold... Turns out I took the 12th position and Rich takes the 11th! We are on to Gold Fleet! !

This is sort of a first for TIYC. We had a total of 6 sailors in the gold Fleet. Aaron Stange, J.R. Francis, Rob Holman, Chris Teal, Rich Potcova, and Myself. In the past we usually only get 2 or 3 to advance.

Well the rest of the day was eduacational for me. While I was bringing up the rear, occasionally able to do some battle with Potcova, lets just say it was a learning experience. I have never raced so fast ...

Here is the other thing... and I was warned about this by Bob Foeller. Bronze Fleet people who qualify all the way through to Gold must sail back-to back 3 races in a row, then once they are in Gold fleet the race committee will try and race gold fleet as much as possible. Aaron estimates that in 6 races I covered nearly 100 miles in one day. Good news is I am not too sore to do it again!

Weather for Thursday is windy and nasty. We pulled our boats off the ice loaded the trailer and took it back to the hotel. The ice was getting a bit on the rotten side by the end of the day so we decided to play it safe. If they actually have the races Thursday we will have a little extra work cut out for us.

In the evening we had the Annual IDNIYRA meeting which was sparsely attended as most of the sailors were too dog tired to attend. The biggest positive I can take out of it was that there is going to be a big effort to have an Opti-DN NA's next year. Also Leon LeBeau donated money for the class to build opti-DN's to help perpetuate the sport.

The Awards for the Worlds followed the meeting. Our own Richard Potcova earned himself a 4th in Silver Fleet, and Glenn Betzoldt won 1st and Sentior title in the Bronze.

Tuesday, February 20th: What a day! Wind was not quite as strong as yesterday, but still enough to make exciting racing and even cause a few spinouts, and a few collisions. The World Championship concluded with 7 races today. Matt Struble the victor after beating out the lightning-fast swede, Tomas Lindgren in the final race.

Our own Glen Betzoldt had a great day earning himself a top 5 finish in the Bronze division. Richard Potcova after wrecking his new boat the day before brought out his old reliable purple boat and improved his rank as he and George Reis were our top silver fleet contenders. Final results will be available after the awards ceremony Wednesday night.

Myself, I started the day with my most embarrassing moment of my iceboating career by taking out the leeward mark's protection cone (an automatic DSQ) The worst part of is is that the cone was tied to the mark so it knocked the mark down and then the cone was pushed in front of my plank until I heard it and stopped. No wait it gets worse. This all happens right in front of the pit area for all the Gold Fleet, Bronze Fleet, and Race Committee to see. That pretty much dashed all hopes of getting a top-10 place in the regatta and taking home a piece of hardware... But I got to race a few more races and placed well and learned a lot.

After we got back to the hotel we went to the hot tub for a while then showered and headed to registration for the North American Championship Regatta. We received a free hat (made by TIYC's own Rich Vail) and a Runner Bag (which I really needed).

Ann Foeller had a photo presentation going on in the bar. We found a good table in front of the TV and ended up with none other than our new world Champion, Matt Struble Sitting with us as well as John Dennis (past North American Champion) and for a while, Ron Sherry (past world and Multiple North American Champ). I had a great opportunity to get some go-fast tips from John. At some point Meade Gougeon came by and introduced himself to Ann and Erica. So here I am finding out just how much fun iceboating can be and how cool the people are.

The North American Championship Regatta will start Wednesday morning. It will probably conclude Thursday night if good racing conditions prevail.

Monday, February 18th: Warmer, but windy. Pressure ridges have opened up making it more difficult to get to the race area. Luckily the plate of ice that we are racing on is still pretty nice.

The wind kicked up to 22 mph+ for a while and the race committee was getting nervous. They finally decided to get the gold fleet race started, and it was most impressive to watch. Tomas Lindgren of Sweden had incredible boat speed all day scoring a 1-1-2, Matt Struble Scored a 2-2-3, and Ron Sherry was a little behind after his spar broke in the first race. The last race of the day he got a first. Our own Aaron Stange, sailing on his birthday ran a 6-8-11. Aaron had great starts, except the last race where the boat below him pinched him up at the start and almost caused a collision. J.R. Francis had a guy smoke out just in front of him as he was about to finish his last race of the day. I am not quite sure how, but J.R. did some fish-tailing and got around him unscathed.

My first race of the day in the Silver fleet didnt go so hot, but my goal was to not hurt anyone, or myself or my boat so on that level it was a success. The second Silver Fleet race the wind let up enough that control was easier to maintain but speeds were still very good. On the second downwind lap I found myself in familiar company - Chris Teal and Dave Zoll. Dave got out ahead of me at first on the weather leg so I locked my sights on picking him off. I gradually caught up to him but was still a little behind at the layline, then after we both tacked together, Dave fumbled his sheet, and I rocketed past him. We both were doing high fives after the race. Just plain good fun.

The same race in Silver fleet, Rich Potcova was off to a great start. He was in the top 5 as he went around the weather mark for the last time, when he heard a "BANG!" he looked up expecting to see his spar broke, but actually it was the hull beneath the spar that broke... the new hull that had just been sailed for the first time just 8 days earlier on Maumee Bay. Bummer... Luckily he has his reliable old purple boat in the trailer to finish the regatta with.

Ann Foeller has lots of pictures and video of this event. And there is a professional company doing video of the regatta. Should be pretty neat to see. Don't think there has ever been a more photographed iceboating event than this one.

We had our Banquet dinner this evening. Real large turnout. All you can eat family-style dinner. Fried Chicken, Mashed Potatoes, Stuffing, cole slaw, beef tips, carrots, cranberry sauce, cookies for dessert. Everybody pretty much ate themselves into a coma and had to leave fairly early.

Results as of Monday: (3 more races planned for tuesday)
Gold Fleet
1. Tomas Lindgren S81
2. Matt Struble US 183 **DIYC!
3T. Bernd Zeiger G 107
4T. John Dennis US 4691
5. Jorg Bohn G 737
6. Aaron Stange US 4480 **TIYC!!
8. John Harper US 4379 ** DIYC!
13. Ron Sherry US 44 **DIYC!
15. J.R. FrancisJ US 807 ** TIYC!!
29. Rob Holman US 3705 **TIYC!!

Silver Fleet
1. Christian Jensen D 324
2. Torsten Siems G 666
3. Michael Ulbrick US 1059
4. Harry Defer US 99
5. Matthias Grothues-Spork G 900
8. George Reis US 5053 **TIYC!!
15. Richard Potcova US 216 **TIYC!!
16. Kent Baker US 5219 **TIYC!!
21. Chris Teal US 5285 **TIYC!!
28. Dave Zoll US 4911 **TIYC!!

Bronze Fleet
1. Mike Derusha US 2545
2. Adam Koller US 5366
3. Glenn Betzoldt US 5172 ** TIYC!!
4. Ken Smith US 4137
5. Ribert Rast US 1313
20. Don Williams US 3909 **TIYC!!

Sunday, February 17th, Cold and Blustery. The Race commitee is having second thoughts about the ice. We go ahead and hold the flag raising ceremony. Our own Aaron Stange gets the honor of raising the American flag. Our friend, Doug Harvey from the Detroit area raises the DN flag. Later, the race committee finds a nice plate of ice just a bit further out past a heave line.

This was written in the forum by Dave Zoll: We are sailing on a large plate of ice about 3.5 miles off shore. There are 125 boats competing. The Bronze fleet got off their race at about 12:30 today in 5 - 10 mile wind from the north - northwest. The Silver fleet was delayed in their start as the wind shifted to the west, then came back north and finally the fleet was started.

The wind stayed light and fluky with some puffs and shifts, causing the fleet to be spread around the 1.25 mile course. At various times some skippers resorted to pushing. The wind varied from 7 mph to nothing.

After the Silver Fleet had finished the wind died completely and at 4 pm the Race Committee called off racing for the day. Some sailors started pushing home. But within 20 minutes the wind shifted dramatically to the south and built to 10- 15 mph providing all with a nice ride back to the launch area.

There is currently a protest being heard. The rumor is that the protest is against the last race and the relief being sought is to have the race thrown out because of the conditions.

The ice ranges from clear and smooth to somewhat bumpy. There is no snow on the ice and none in the forecast. By noon we are off and racing the Bronze Qualifier. The top 12 finishers in the Bronze Fleet advance to Silver Fleet. I had a great start being the first around the weather mark, second around the leeward mark then faded back to 11th by the finish. Puffy conditions had me hiking just a little too much to hold on to my postition, but just enough to qualify for Silver fleet.

The Silver Fleet Race I had another Great start... taking the final leeward rounding in 4th in the fluky light air. Then suddenly about a dozen boats came from behind on some sort of air that I didn't have and left me in the dust. Luckily Rob Holman got in on that ride and he qualified for the gold fleet. I ended up 20th, (which counts as an 8th for Silver Fleet). The rest of our fleet was not quite so lucky... It was a tough long race. The air by now was pretty much dead. The race committee wisely called off racing for the day and we came in while a new south breeze slowly filled in.

Later at the hotel in the thriving metropolis of Marinette, Wisconsin we head to the hot tub and run into several other iceboaters there. Jan Gougeon was a lot of fun to listen to as he recounted stories of sailing in the 70's then his misadventures just back in December returning from a regatta in a snow storm.

We asked the desk where a good place to eat might be... (slim pickins in this town on a Sunday night) we settle on a little bar, two blocks down the street and have pizza, conversation, and pitchers of adult beverage. Cool little place... we very well might come back to that one.

Well, I still need to stone runners and get some sleep. Gold fleet will start the racing on Monday, so those of us in the Silver and Bronze fleet don't have to rush quite so much.

At Left: Aaron Stange looks on as Doug Harvey raises the DN Flag at the conclusion of the flag ceremony. Sailors from 10 nations are here to compete. Photo: Geoff Sobering

Friday, February 16th, 11:00 P.M.: the trailer was loaded and the green van was pulling us north on I-75. None of us had any problem falling asleep... except thankfully, Erica who drove for 7 hours.

Saturday, February 17th, 3 AM: Snow storm. Lake Michigan Effect snow. Slow going at 35-45 Miles per hour.

4 AM : The road is so rough with ice-heaves the washboard effect wakes us all up just in time to see the Mackinaw bridge is looming in front of us. What an awesome site to look down off the bridge and see black ice all over the place. Luckily the snow has decreased to an occasional light flurry.

5:30 AM: we stop at a gas station. for fuel and relief. It says something about the area when your convenience stores also sell live bait. Snow is not really that deep for being in the U.P.

7:30 AM: Erica's back is starting to hurt. Time to switch drivers. The sky is turning from black to blue. Large black birds are lining the edge of the road scoping out the fresh overnight road kills. Roads are improving and snow is subsiding. Yes is playing "long distance runaround" on the Radio and I point out to Rich how appropriate the song is for us.

9:50 AM: We have found the launch site. We drive directly on the ice and there are fleets of Stern Steerers (including the behemoth "Deuce", Skeeters, Nites, Renegades. DN's are not quiet in the majority yet... It is an amazing site to see. We decide to go get breakfast then come back and set up and do some scrub races. There is some good wind out there and some cracks to be aware of. We all get some good scrub racing in... I try some tuning changes. Now the mast is stiffer, but I point better... Hiking too much... just cant quite get it right... that is the dilemma of the ice boater.

7:00 P.M. : It is registration time back at the hotel in Marinette, Wisconsin. Fun to see all the familiar faces from last years North American Championship. TIYC is well represented at the registration with Rob Holman, George Reis, Erica Stange, Don Williams, Glen Betzoldt, Bob Foeller, and Dave Zoll all helping out with the process of people getting signed in and registered.